If the average Australian wedding costs $36,000, what should taxpayers make of paying almost $20,000 for five Coalition MPs - including Prime Minister Tony Abbott - to attend three weddings?

Interim Labor leader Chris Bowen says the series of revelations about Mr Abbott, three of his ministers and a backbencher show a pattern of poor judgement.

"This goes to judgement of senior Liberals claiming travel expenses for what are very clearly, very clearly not legitimate travel expenses," he told reporters on Sunday.

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"We all accept that mistakes can happen but this goes to a pattern of poor judgement and a pattern of a lack of transparency and disclosure."

Earlier on Sunday it was revealed Mr Abbott had chosen to repay the cost of attending a Liberal colleague’s wedding seven years ago, but only after facing questions from the media late last week.

Mr Abbott’s spokeswoman confirmed the Prime Minister had repaid the $1095 cost of travelling to Sophie Mirabella’s 2006 wedding "in the last few days".

The move came after advice that he may not have been entitled to claim the wedding expenses on the public purse.

A spokeswoman said Mr Abbott "immediately sought advice" from the Finance Department "when the matter was brought to his attention" following News Corp Australia’s inquiries.

"The advice received said it was not possible to determine if the travel was within entitlement," she said in a statement.

"For the avoidance of any doubt, Mr Abbott has repaid all costs associated with this travel totalling $1,094.64 and the matter is resolved."

Ms Mirabella, a Liberal MP since 2001, was defeated in last month’s election. Mr Abbott was John Howard’s health minister at the time of the wedding in Wangaratta, Victoria.

Likely incoming House of Representatives speaker Bronwyn Bishop also attended the wedding but her spokesman said she travelled to Albury the day before on parliamentary-related business connected with her then role as a committee chair. Ms Bishop stayed an extra two nights at her own expense, did not claim travel allowance and did not use taxpayer-funded cars, the spokesman said.

It came in the week after Attorney-General George Brandis and Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce agreed to reimburse taxpayers after Fairfax Media revealed they had claimed expenses related to the wedding of their friend, shock jock Michael Smith, in 2011.

"The better course of action is to always err on a more conservative side and if there is any doubt, then don’t make a claim," he said.

"All of the colleagues that you have mentioned are people that are scrupulous about the way they use taxpayers’ money and would have been absolutely satisfied that what they were doing was the right thing."

Former prime minister Julia Gillard's office has previously defended her use of a VIP jet to attend the wedding of her press secretary in Byron Bay in March this year.

Mr Abbott's chief of staff wrote in October 2010 that the flights "were inadvertently booked as official travel, rather than private".

Last month, documents released to The Australian under freedom of information laws showed Ms Gillard repaid $4243 in 2007 when she was deputy opposition leader relating to partner Tim Mathieson's private use of a taxpayer-funded car.

Daniel Hurst and AAP

185 comments

it seems those who have think they deserve more.

Commenter

metoo

Date and time

October 06, 2013, 7:04AM

The Abbott haters looking for any angle for a good smear...Woops!! He repaid it, Matter resolved!!!

Commenter

Frank

Date and time

October 06, 2013, 8:05AM

Abbott is not only a liar and a hypocrite, but a rorter as well.

Commenter

meatatarian

Date and time

October 06, 2013, 8:11AM

The matter is not resolved. Slipper offered to pay back the money but they didn't let him. Yet Brandis, Joyce, Abbott, et al., can quickly pay money back when their claims are made public?Seems there are two rules - one for the LNP (and associates) and another rule for every 'non-LNP ' person. The public must demand an inquiry into these rorts (false claims, etc) and it must be undertaken across ALL political groups (LNP, ALP, Greens, etc).Enough is enough.

Commenter

Jump

Date and time

October 06, 2013, 8:18AM

@ Frank, the real question is why he would think it appropriate to claim expenses for attending a friend's wedding, says a lot about his ethics. he only repaid it because treasury called him on in. Yes, its not criminal but it is certainly amoral. I don't think you or I would expect reimbursement from our employer for attending a work colleague's wedding, do you?

Commenter

Haters

Location

Hatersville

Date and time

October 06, 2013, 8:20AM

The monetary side might be resolved, but certainly not the fact that a government that continually says they are trustworthy and transparent keep getting found with their hands in the public funded cookie jar!

Commenter

Danno75

Date and time

October 06, 2013, 8:25AM

Frank, if someone stole money off you, and paid it back after they were caught, it seems that they can go free, with no further punishment. It's a dumb precedent you're advocating. It's motivated in the name of protecting Abbott at all costs.The smear campaigns started by Fraudband Minister Turnbull and heightened by Abbott during their opposition years has shown, what goes around, comes back to bite you. Abbott is well and truly deserving of this.

Commenter

meatatarian

Date and time

October 06, 2013, 8:31AM

Yes, Frank; but the question is: why did he charge the taxpayer for the trip in the first place. Granted, it was Sophie Mirabella's wedding, which would be work whichever way you looked at it.

Commenter

Jace

Date and time

October 06, 2013, 8:32AM

The rot starts at the top. No surprise, really.

This is the worst government Australia has ever seen, and we're barely weeks in.

Funny how the Abbot lovers will excuse anything, regardless of the hypocrisy.

People in my Western Sydney electorate would love an early election to toss these rorters out.

Commenter

Election NOW!

Location

Sydney

Date and time

October 06, 2013, 8:32AM

There should be an easily accessible web page clearly showing what the pollies are charging to the taxpayer.

Any pollie claiming for obviously personal expenses such as a wedding should be required to pay back double the original amount.

Also, get rid of the upper house (eg QLD, NZ) save a lot of $ and lets the government govern without the need to pander to a select few independents or 'greens'.